[.ca] Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven (ISBN 0786884096)

From Amazon.com:
Author of the popular vegetarian classic Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen now offers Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven, another celebration of nature's bounty. The book (also illustrated by Katzen), presents more than 200 approachable recipes for a wide range of vegetable dishes, from openers, soups, and side dishes to pastas, condiments, and entrees. The recipes draw freely from diverse culinary styles, and cooks of all kinds should enjoy the dishes, as well as Katzen's casual, spontaneous tone. Standout recipes include Roasted Eggplant Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette, Tomato-Fennel Consommé, Giant Mushroom Popovers, and Frittata with Red Onions, Roasted Garlic, Greens, and Goat Cheese. The book's "Side-by-Side" chapter, a collection of small dishes meant to be served together, features bean and grain delights like Coconut Rice with Ginger, Chilies, and Lime, Tuscan Bean and Pasta Stew, and "Don't Knock 'Em Till You Try 'Em" Soyburgers. Condiments and sauces are used to enliven simple vegetable fare and Katzen accordingly offers recipes for such flavor boosters as Red Onion and Shallot Marmalade, Summer Fruit Salsa, and Chipotle Cream. There are dessert recipes, too, for old favorites like Ginger Thins and Homemade Butterscotch Pudding and "newer" enticements like Mexican Chocolate Cake, Pineapple Pomegranita, and Blueberry-Lemon Mousse Pie. With a selection of seasonal menus and useful ingredient notes, the book brims with modern vegetarian cooking ideas presented in Katzen's much-loved style. --Arthur Boehm

Quick, simple, satisfying recipes for meat-eaters, vegans.:
I've never created such flavorful and satisfying dishes from such simple recipes as I have with this book. A good example is the roasted beans with garlic and olives: two or three ingredients to buy at the grocery store, ten minutes of work, two items to wash when you're done, and a rich, tasty dish that I was proud to present to dinner guests. The introduction, which unfortunately is not included in the preview pages, gives a good idea of what to expect: food "prepared in sumptuous, yet uncomplicated ways.... opulent, yet clean and simple". _Vegetable Heaven_ isn't a vegan cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegan or adaptable. It stands out among such cookbooks for its simple, flavorful, *filling* dishes. The Achille's heel of most vegan cooking is the inability to combine flavor with the heaviness that creates a satisfied feeling after a meal. In recipe after recipe, _Vegetable Heaven_ shows how this difficulty can be overcome. Since the recipes are filling and don't use as many exotic ingredients as some vegetarian cookbooks, they're useful when cooking for unadventurous eaters, such as parents, children, and meat-eaters. Some of the recipes are quite spicy, but a few are bland children's food or comfort food. The descriptions are clear, so you won't be unpleasantly surprised. Besides being full of great recipes, the book is durable, exceptionally well laid out, and mostly a pleasure to use. However, it doesn't lie open unless you're using a recipe from the middle third of the book. Of course, _Vegetable Heaven_ doesn't try to be all things to all people. It's not a report of gastronomical research and innovation, so if you're an experienced cook, don't expect to be provoked and stimulated on every page. It's also not a coffee-table cookbook -- the artwork is pleasant but not captivating, and there are no photographs of professional presentations of the dishes.

You'll never miss the meat!:
I'm not a vegetarian but I think this book is fantastic. I use it a lot when I'm going to potlucks where there will be vegetarians, but I also cook from it for myself. I've made a wide variety of dishes from it and they have all turned out great. I have a few favorites that I make again and again. That is saying a lot, since I have abot 100 cookbooks, and I don't get back to many recipes unless they are totally amazing and/or simple. My favorites from this book are the Blackberry Buckle, Coconut Lime Chili Rice and Golden Chickpea Soup. Everything has so much flavor it doesn't matter that there is no meat. Also, Mollie gives a great introduction to flavor combinations from lots of different cuisines, so you can try a few dishes before delving more deeply into ethnic cooking. Try it, you'll love it!

Inventive and Delicious!:
My husband and I are not vegetarian but enjoy vegetarian cooking. We get a box of organic produce from a local farm every two weeks and look for novel dishes in which to use them. Roasted Eggplant Strata is out of this world. I've made Bitter Greens with Sweet Onions and Tart Cheese over pasta more times than I can count. The Coconut-Lime Rice is ravishing. The roasted red pepper and walnut paste is as good as aioli. The Stovetop Cassoulet could have had more depth of flavor for the amount of work. I had trouble today with Mollie's coconut macaroon recipe. Luckily she makes herself available for questions on molliekatzen.com via a bulletin board.* I highly recommend this book for those who want to eat well and healthfully. *She did indeed reply; the trouble was my oven!

Don't do it! Order something by Deborah Madison instead!!:
I've never been as disgusted by a cookbook as I have been with "Vegetable Heaven". I am a fairly experienced with respect to vegetarian cookery, yet every recipe I tried from of this cookbook was an unmitigated disappointment. Usually I ended up with bland semi-liquid muck. The "Black Beans in Mango Sauce" recipe was appallingly bland and grainy. The butterscotch pudding had absolutely NO flavor. And the mashed pea guacamole substitute, or "Guaca-Mollie", was so pasty and nasty that eating it gave me the dry heaves. Get the original Moosewood. Or Moosewood Low Fat Favorites. Or ANYTHING by Deborah Madison. Or try the vegetarian recipies from any of Madhur Jaffrey's cook books. But I beseech you to save your money and save yourself from this cook book.

Ditto:
Others have said it before me - another great book by Molly Katzen. This one got the Julia Child cookbook award which says a lot in itself. I've had great success with every recipe I've tried. Buy it, you'll like it!